I've heard from a couple of kind souls that expressed that they wished I could put out chapters faster. I wish I could too! I'm actually taking a few days off this coming week so maybe I can get some extra writing done.
Chapter sixteen is well underway though so, for now, there is no risk in the weekly schedule falling behind and I know roughly where the story is going for chapter 17. I assure everyone Robert, Melissa and Lavi are going to have a lot of fun on their vacation. Robert has been making restaurant reservations with great enthusiasm while the girls might have some plans of their own.
I had one person ask about the name Xinyi, the name is Chinese and is pronounced 'Shenee'. This gets into details that I don't think will ever make it into the story as it would require excessive exposition. But I can share them in a blog post.
The family name for Ji and Xinyi is Guo. Ji is short for Jiang, she often goes by Jen or Jenny for a more American name. Xinyi, however, doesn't like her American name, Shirley. Jenny is persistently known as Ji among the other cheerleaders in part because her mother, Ai, comes to every cheer event and keeps forgetting to call her Jenny. Lavi latched onto it and used it during their freshman year to annoy Ji and it stuck with the cheerleaders. Lavi and Ji have never been outright hateful to each other but never liked each other. Both Guo girls were given their American names by the parents when the family moved to the states when they were young and Xinyi decided it made her like an old woman so by the time she started high school she insisted on being Xinyi again.
Although both are cheerleaders they have very different personalities as everyone will eventually see.